You should start about nine o'clock, and give the whole day to the crater, returning to dinner at five.
The great crater of Kilauea is nine miles in circumference, and perhaps a thousand feet deep.

It is, in fact, a deep pit, bounded on all sides by precipitous rocks.

The entrance is effected by a series of steps, and below these by a scramble over lava and rock debris.

It is not difficult, but the ascent is tiresome; and it is a prudent precaution, if you have ladies with you, to take a native man for each lady, to assist her over the rougher places, and up the steep ascent.

The greater part of the crater was, when I saw it, a mass of dead, though not cold lava; and over this you walk to the farthest extremity of the pit, where you must ascend a tolerably steep hill of lava, which is the bank of the fiery lake.